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For Victorian Britons, George
Bradshaw was a household name.

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At a time when railways were new,

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Bradshaw's guidebook inspired them
to take to the tracks.

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I'm using a Bradshaw's guide
to understand

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how trains transformed Britain,

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its landscape, its industries,
society, and leisure time.

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As I crisscross the country
150 years later,

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it helps me to discover
the Britain of today.

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I'm continuing my trip along the
tracks of the Flying Scotsman.

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Today, I hope to have a singsong
amongst holy innocents as my journey

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stretches into industrial
Nottinghamshire, to discover how

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a novelist writing in Yorkshire
prompted a Victorian concern

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for animals, and to meet my match
as I strike into County Durham.

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My journey is taking me
up the East Coast Main Line from

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London King's Cross through
Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire,

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and on via Nottinghamshire to where
a steam locomotive

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first hauled wagons
in County Durham.

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I'll progress along the North Sea
coast, crossing the Scottish border,

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to finish in the capital, Edinburgh.

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Today I start at Newark-on-Trent,

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a town dubbed the Key of the North.

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I'll continue on to Retford before
stopping off in Thirsk and finishing

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in Stockton-on-Tees,
the cradle of the modern railway.

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'On this journey,
I rally a crowd of choristers...'

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Has your chanting ever been
atrocious?

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No.

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'..become friends
with a prickly chap...'

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Hello, Charles. Charles is certainly
not lacking in energy or strength,

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is he?
He is quite a character.

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'..and get fired up with
a Victorian chemist.'

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Let there be light.

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My first stop today will be Newark.
Bradshaw's says, "the parish church

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"of St Mary is one of the finest
in the kingdom.

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"A grammar school founded in Henry
VIII's reign with a song school

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"attached is near the church."

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Children singing - a choir of new
archangels, perhaps.

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Beside the River Trent,

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Newark's old castle provided the
focus for a town

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where roads and railway
lines converge.

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Its church steeple has long towered
over the hustle and bustle

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of this market town.

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The Bradshaw traveller would already
have recognised it as a hub.

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I'm meeting Andrew Fern,

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clerk at the charity that founded
the choir school.

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Andrew, Bradshaw's mentions
the very distinguished

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St Mary Magdalene Church, and
mentions too that the grammar school

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from Henry VIII's time had
a song school attached.

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For what purpose was there
a song school?

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The song school was to enable the
young men to learn to sing

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and to further their religious
education at the same time.

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How was such a school funded?

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Thomas Magnus was a loyal courtier
of Henry VIII,

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and because he was faithful
to his king he was rewarded

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with emoluments and decided to
endow the schools here

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with some of that wealth.

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Thomas Magnus was Henry VIII's
chaplain.

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At a time when religion and power
went hand in hand,

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Magnus left his mark on Newark.

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He bequeathed land that generated
revenue for the trust to fund

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the grammar school
and the song school.

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I think of funded choirs attached to
Oxford and Cambridge colleges,

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to cathedrals, and so on,

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but it's quite unusual, isn't it,
for a parish church?

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It's very unusual.
We're enormously lucky.

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We're just one of the few parish
churches in the whole country

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to have an endowed choir. And it
gives a great opportunity

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to youngsters of all backgrounds,
and sometimes different talents,

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to come together and make music.
It's fantastic.

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Today's choir echoes the voices of
generations of children

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who attended the school
over the past five centuries.

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The choirmaster is
Stephen Bullamore.

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Choir, what a splendid sound.

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Thank you very much.
You must be Stephen.

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Yes, thank you very much.
It's great to see you.

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What a range of ages.

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And what does it feel like to sing
with this choir?

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Well, it feels quite cool because it
feels like it's a chance to be you,

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and it feels like
you can express yourself.

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That's very nice indeed.

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So, has this choir pretty much been
singing since 1530?

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Not necessarily each individual
member, but as a body

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we've been going for
a very long time, yes.

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I've been digging into the archives
and we have a list of music which

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was sung in the 19th century,
kept by one of my predecessors.

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And he also comments on quite how
well the singing was or was not,

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so we have a rather nice comment:
"All the music went well tonight."

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That's good.

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"Chanting in the morning
simply atrocious.

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"As bad in the evening,
and the anthem murdered entirely."

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Now, let's check with the choir.

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Has your chanting ever been
atrocious?

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ALL: No.

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And have you ever
murdered an anthem?

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ALL: No!

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Before leaving Newark, I'm going to
visit a special display

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celebrating a time when train travel
was still an adventure.

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The London North Eastern Railway ran
to some beautiful places -

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York, Scarborough,
Berwick-upon-Tweed -

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but how were those attractions
to be illustrated?

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Posters were the answer,

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and writer Edward Yardley
has a passion for them.

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Edward, I'm Michael.
How lovely to see you.

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Lovely to see you. What a great
collection of railway posters.

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Yes. When does the railway poster
start life?

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The poster starts in the Victorian
period, Michael, but it starts as

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a rather muddled set of images with
some overstated letterpress.

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It really gets going in the
Edwardian period,

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and by 1923, we were in the heyday
of the poster period.

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Illustrated by artists,

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these posters transformed platforms
into open-air galleries,

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and Frank Henry Mason
was one of the masters.

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Born in 1875, he'd been a marine
life painter when the LNER

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lured him into the
advertising world.

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He demonstrated his talent for
everything from the Flying Scotsman

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to the most
intricate industrial scenes,

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and the east coast
seaside destinations.

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Well, that speaks for itself.

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I mean, that is the classic,
isn't it?

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Inviting us to the
broad, open beach.

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Yes, this is what we think of as a
typical railway poster,

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designed to entice the holiday
public to the resort.

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It's Scarborough in this one.

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And it's alluring
after all this time.

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Yes. But, now,
this is quite different.

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This is NOT buckets
and spades at all.

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No, but this was the advertising
manager coming up with

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a different slant on enticing the
public to the Great Britain

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in terms of its industry as well as
coastal resorts merely being

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for the holiday-maker.

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A tribute to what's
actually going on in Britain.

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Absolutely. And then up the east
coast we go.

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Berwick-upon-Tweed,
the famous bridge.

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And at last we arrive in Scotland,
and that's a beautiful piece too.

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Indeed, and this is a series
of six, Michael,

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showing the different types of
fishing boats that in those days

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were very much at work in the
harbours up and down the east coast.

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These posters...

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Yeah. ..remain very popular and
you're obviously extraordinarily

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keen about them. Why are we so
attracted still to

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the work of Frank Mason and others
all these years later?

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Well, I think you can sum it up in
the word "nostalgia".

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These are images of a bygone age.

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Yes.

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I'm leaving Newark
to press northward.

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My next stop will be Retford
in Nottinghamshire.

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According to Bradshaw's, the
inhabitants manufacture hats,

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sail cloth, and paper,
in considerable quantities.

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The Chesterfield Canal from the
Trent has been of great advantage

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to the town. In Victorian times they
discovered a new industrial plant,

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proving that the manufacture of
the town was highly flexible.

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Retford has kept the traces
of its industrial splendour,

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with fine Victorian frontages
adorning the town square.

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The Northern Rubber Factory was
founded here during that boom era,

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and has been on
this site since 1871.

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Its product was destined
to become indispensable.

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Mike Heslop has worked here for
nearly 40 years,

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and knows about the history of
rubber at the time of my Bradshaw's.

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In the Victorian times, the only
rubber that was available

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was natural rubber,
which was taken from trees,

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and that was sourced from Brazil

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because that was the only place
that they grew,

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and it was illegal to actually
export seeds or plants from Brazil.

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But in the 1870s,
a chap called Henry Wickham

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smuggled 70,000 seeds from
Brazil to Kew Gardens,

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where they were propagated and the
resulting plants were

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distributed throughout the Empire.

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So to Ceylon, Malaya,
at the time, India,

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all of which had the correct climate
to grow rubber plants.

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When those rubber trees had grown in
those colonial regions, their gum

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was a cheap commodity readily
available to imperial Britain.

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Back in America, in 1839, Charles
Goodyear had discovered that

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by heating rubber with sulphur,
one was able to harden

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the amorphous mass into a material
which would hold its shape.

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This process would be called
vulcanisation.

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Alfred Pegler saw the potential,

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and founded the factory
as a family business.

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His great-grandson would go on to
look after the company,

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and put his name down
in railway history.

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Alan Pegler is well known for his
activities in the rail industry.

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In the early '60s, he purchased the
Flying Scotsman and he then spent

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a large amount of his fortune
restoring the train.

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We owe to him the fact that it has
now been restored

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and is available for
us to ride. Yeah, absolutely, yes.

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Inside the factory's
Victorian walls,

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the activity is resolutely modern.

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The old vulcanisation technique has
evolved to produce army tank wheels,

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while synthetic rubber is used by
21st-century aerospace.

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Manufacturing manager, Tom Wagstaff,
takes me behind the scenes.

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So, Michael, this is a fire test and
what we're going to do is we've got

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a silicone rubber seal in the test
rig. This particular seal,

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a safety-critical engine component
for an aircraft. The point

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of the fire test is we are going to
hit it

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with 1,100 degrees C of flame.

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We're going to do that for five
minutes to make sure that

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the seal stays intact, and it will
be safe on the aircraft.

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So that looks pretty metallic,

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but actually it is...

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Silicone rubber.
Silicone rubber.

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Whoa!

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Excuse me.

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Silicone rubber is the perfect
material for this aircraft seal,

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because it can survive very high
temperatures, as in this fire test,

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and extremes of cold,
down to -60 Celsius.

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I can feel the heat
radiating from here.

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A pretty powerful flame.

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It really is an aggressive flame,
for the worst type of fire.

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I'm just going to have a look at
what's happened to the seal.

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And the answer is nothing.

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00:14:06,200 --> 00:14:10,360
With contracts with NASA and the
British Ministry of Defence,

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the company is accustomed to
manufacturing critical

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00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:17,280
pieces of equipment, such as this
in-flight refuelling hose.

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00:14:18,280 --> 00:14:21,920
Imagine a fighter plane coming in
at 300, 400mph,

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00:14:21,920 --> 00:14:23,800
to the back of a tanker plane.

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00:14:23,800 --> 00:14:26,280
It's got to be able to connect
onto this.

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00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:29,160
It's got to be strong enough to be
able to take that force

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00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:31,760
without breaking loose
from the aircraft.

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00:14:31,760 --> 00:14:35,520
And how on Earth does this thing
find its way towards the fuel tank?

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So, it's a good question.

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These can be up to 120 feet long,

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and today the pilot will fly in,

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00:14:42,640 --> 00:14:45,880
home in to the back of the tanker,
and try and hook the end of it.

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00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:48,480
I couldn't do it.
I'm sure you could, Michael!

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00:14:49,880 --> 00:14:51,760
But what we're actually
doing as well -

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a really interesting piece of
technology - is for drones, so UAVs.

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We're actually running data fibres
within it, so an unmanned aircraft

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00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:05,120
can clip onto the back, get fuel on
board, download mission parameters,

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00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:08,560
uncouple, and it allows those to
stay in the sky 24 hours a day.

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00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:11,880
And so, really, you're working on an
intelligent hose.

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00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:14,520
Oh, absolutely, yeah. This is the
cutting edge of technology

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across the world. Can you imagine
what a gardener could do with that?

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Thirsk, please. Senior.
£27.05, then, please.

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To make my journey from Retford to
Thirsk, I've had to change trains

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00:16:05,160 --> 00:16:10,080
in York, but who needs an excuse to
come to this magnificent station?

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When it was built in 1877,

235
00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:21,600
York was the largest station in
Britain, and many perceived it as

236
00:16:21,600 --> 00:16:23,320
a monument to extravagance.

237
00:16:24,880 --> 00:16:27,360
The whole station was
constructed on a curve,

238
00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:29,640
making it all the more striking.

239
00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:35,800
My next station will be Thirsk.

240
00:16:35,800 --> 00:16:39,280
Bradshaw's says, "that it cannot
lay claim to any feature

241
00:16:39,280 --> 00:16:42,040
"worthy of attention." Oh, dear.

242
00:16:42,040 --> 00:16:44,280
I'm sure the people of Thirsk
would not agree.

243
00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:47,960
"A few miles on is Byland Abbey,
a fine ruin,

244
00:16:47,960 --> 00:16:52,320
"in going to which Laurence Sterne's
house may be observed."

245
00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:56,520
Sterne, although a man of the cloth,
wrote satire and comedy,

246
00:16:56,520 --> 00:16:59,840
and so his surname was not
particularly appropriate.

247
00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:14,960
Despite Bradshaw's giving Thirsk
the brush-off,

248
00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:16,920
it's actually a charming town,

249
00:17:16,920 --> 00:17:20,360
with a picturesque town clock
and a cobbled market square.

250
00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:26,680
Just outside, in a pastoral haven,
a man penned a series of books

251
00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:28,560
that shook the literary world.

252
00:17:29,600 --> 00:17:34,120
Patrick Wildgust is curator of
the Laurence Sterne Trust.

253
00:17:34,120 --> 00:17:36,920
Well, Patrick, Bradshaw's
recommended that I come to see

254
00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:40,040
Laurence Sterne's house, and I must
say, it is highly attractive.

255
00:17:40,040 --> 00:17:42,760
But let's begin with -
who was Laurence Sterne?

256
00:17:42,760 --> 00:17:46,000
Laurence Sterne was a clergyman, and
he was the clergyman of two villages

257
00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:48,200
to the south of here,
but he had ambition.

258
00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:50,840
He said, "I write not to be fed,
but to be famous."

259
00:17:50,840 --> 00:17:52,200
And he produced a book called

260
00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:54,600
The Life And Opinions Of
Tristram Shandy, Gentleman,

261
00:17:54,600 --> 00:17:57,440
one of the most extraordinary books
that's in the English canon.

262
00:17:57,440 --> 00:18:00,320
And why is it extraordinary?
Because it's funny.

263
00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:03,160
It's a genuinely funny book,
but it's also very clever.

264
00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:07,000
It begins with a rather strange way
of referring to the hero's

265
00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:10,960
conception, which is dictated by the
winding of the clock,

266
00:18:10,960 --> 00:18:13,400
and as a result of this,
it was scandalous.

267
00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:16,000
That, presumably, is the book.

268
00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:18,160
Well, this is the first volume.

269
00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:20,360
This is a first edition,
a copy of the first volume,

270
00:18:20,360 --> 00:18:23,280
which was published in 1759,
and here is the title page.

271
00:18:23,280 --> 00:18:25,480
Shandy's a North Yorkshire dialect
word,

272
00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:27,280
meaning a bit strange or a bit odd.

273
00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:30,520
And then, beneath that,
we have two lines in Greek,

274
00:18:30,520 --> 00:18:32,200
so that's appealing to the
intellectual,

275
00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:34,160
and it means something along the
lines of,

276
00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:37,680
"It's not what things are that men
fear, it's his opinions of them."

277
00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:39,360
How was it received at the time?

278
00:18:39,360 --> 00:18:42,160
It was a huge success,
but it was also quite controversial,

279
00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:44,440
because the book,
although funny and bawdy,

280
00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:46,880
when it was discovered it was
written by a clergyman,

281
00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:49,560
that altered its reception
to some degree.

282
00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:51,720
How was he regarded
in Victorian times?

283
00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:54,800
In Victorian times, they chopped off
the first five chapters

284
00:18:54,800 --> 00:18:57,720
in some editions, to make sure that
this didn't offend.

285
00:18:57,720 --> 00:19:01,040
If a vicar in a parish today brought
out a slim volume of erotic verse,

286
00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:02,760
how would it go down
with the parish?

287
00:19:02,760 --> 00:19:06,320
It had that sort of effect?
Yeah, certainly.

288
00:19:06,320 --> 00:19:10,680
Sterne both provoked and influenced
his readers.

289
00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:13,200
One of his best-known characters,
Uncle Toby,

290
00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:15,560
made an impact on Victorian society.

291
00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:19,120
This painting here shows two
characters from

292
00:19:19,120 --> 00:19:20,920
The Life And Opinions Of
Tristram Shandy -

293
00:19:20,920 --> 00:19:23,320
Uncle Toby and the Widow Wadman.

294
00:19:23,320 --> 00:19:25,640
Uncle Toby is a kind and genial man.

295
00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:30,000
In volume two of Tristram Shandy,
if I can show you here, on page 79,

296
00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:33,080
there's an account as to why we
should look at this man because

297
00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:37,040
Tristram thinks that he owes 50% of
his understanding of philanthropy

298
00:19:37,040 --> 00:19:41,120
because of this action, "where my
Uncle Toby had scarce a heart

299
00:19:41,120 --> 00:19:44,440
"to retaliate upon a fly
which had buzzed about his nose

300
00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:47,320
"and tormented him cruelly
all dinner time.

301
00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:50,440
"Get thee gone,
why should I hurt thee?

302
00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:54,760
"This world surely is big enough to
hold both thee and me."

303
00:19:54,760 --> 00:19:57,360
And this must have been very
unfashionable at the time.

304
00:19:57,360 --> 00:20:00,680
People didn't care about animals.
It's an unusual perspective.

305
00:20:00,680 --> 00:20:03,640
Tristram is affected by this,
and so they were in Victorian times

306
00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:06,440
as well, because the Newcastle
Weekly Chronicle decided that

307
00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:10,360
there should be a society organised
for the young child

308
00:20:10,360 --> 00:20:14,400
to try to encourage the idea
of not killing sparrows and birds.

309
00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:17,680
The editor used the pen name
Uncle Toby to promote

310
00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:22,840
the Dickey Bird Society. Within ten
years, 100,000 people had pledged

311
00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:27,040
fealty to feathered friends, and
parades were held in Newcastle

312
00:20:27,040 --> 00:20:28,880
in celebration.

313
00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:31,480
Dear Uncle Toby,
we owe you such a lot.

314
00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:32,840
Indeed.

315
00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:41,720
Uncle Toby and the Victorians sowed
the seeds for the nation of

316
00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:44,760
animal lovers that
the British have become.

317
00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:46,680
On the outskirts of Thirsk,

318
00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:51,680
Krista Langley has a wildlife
centre funded entirely by donations.

319
00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:54,000
Since its opening in 2008,

320
00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:58,200
the centre has taken care
of over 5,000 animals.

321
00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:02,080
Wow, cages all around.

322
00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:04,600
So, which animals are in residence
at the moment?

323
00:21:04,600 --> 00:21:07,000
We've got a little owl.
We get quite a few in.

324
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:08,920
Ooh!
Looking very bright.

325
00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:12,320
Hello, little owl.
What a lovely bird.

326
00:21:12,320 --> 00:21:15,000
They're full of character,
little owls.

327
00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:16,440
Looking me directly in the eye.

328
00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:21,680
This little owl was brought to the
centre after being found concussed

329
00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:26,040
on the roadside. It couldn't feed
itself, but is recovering,

330
00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:28,840
and will soon resume
its life in the wild.

331
00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:37,400
Cygnets, rabbits and other animals
have found shelter and care,

332
00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:39,840
including this hedgehog, Charles.

333
00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:43,280
At only 142 grams,
he's in need of a feed.

334
00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:48,520
Nice soft blanket for him.

335
00:21:48,520 --> 00:21:50,400
Hello, Charles.

336
00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:52,480
Come on, Charles. Come on, Charles.

337
00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:59,480
Charles is certainly not lacking in
energy or strength, is he?

338
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:00,880
He's quite a character.

339
00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:04,400
Charles.

340
00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:06,000
That's better. Here we go.

341
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:08,320
You're doing really well,
because he's quite difficult.

342
00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:10,480
He's always had a habit of
pulling on the teat.

343
00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:11,920
Yeah, he does pull a lot.

344
00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:15,040
Although he's started to eat solids,
he still enjoys his milk.

345
00:22:16,400 --> 00:22:18,400
How's that, Charles? Is that nice?

346
00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:28,200
My next stop will be Stockton.

347
00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:31,440
Bradshaw's tells me it's a market
town in the county of Durham,

348
00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:36,200
employed in the coal and shipping
trade, situated on the River Tees,

349
00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:39,800
and celebrated for
the manufacture of rope.

350
00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:45,240
The first bar of the railway line to
Darlington was laid here in 1825.

351
00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:50,160
It's also the birthplace of the man
who gave us heat and light

352
00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:51,600
at our fingertips.

353
00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:01,560
Stockton has a special place in the
heart of all train lovers.

354
00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:06,480
Here ran the world's first public
railway to use steam locomotives.

355
00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:11,360
Today, the town proudly commemorates
the famed Locomotion No 1

356
00:23:11,360 --> 00:23:14,200
with a modern sculpture
that moves on the hour.

357
00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:18,960
The 19th-century town residents were
true pioneers,

358
00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:23,400
and when it came to inventions, the
railways were about to be matched.

359
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:29,520
This enormous work of art celebrates
the achievement of a

360
00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:32,080
Stockton-on-Tees chemist.

361
00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:34,360
Just a little invention,

362
00:23:34,360 --> 00:23:36,600
but one that simplified our lives,

363
00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:39,920
and helped to fuel
the Industrial Revolution.

364
00:23:43,120 --> 00:23:48,200
To find out about that discovery, I
need to step back in time to 1895,

365
00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:52,360
in the Victorian street of the
Preston Park Museum,

366
00:23:52,360 --> 00:23:56,600
just in time for my appointment
with the local chemist.

367
00:23:56,600 --> 00:23:59,600
John Walker was a 45-year-old
pharmacist

368
00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:03,000
when he invented the striking match.

369
00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:07,640
His shop stocked products ranging
from cosmetics to leeches.

370
00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:11,960
Historical interpreter John Sadler
has stepped into Walker's shoes.

371
00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:14,880
Mr John Walker.

372
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:18,360
Good afternoon. Inventor of the
striking match, I believe.

373
00:24:18,360 --> 00:24:23,160
Well, I must confess that I was not
intending to create the match.

374
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,680
I was inspired by The Reverend
Alexander Forsyth,

375
00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:32,240
and he had invented a new firing
mechanism called the percussion cap,

376
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:35,040
which was an improvement
on the flint mechanism,

377
00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:38,200
and all one has to do now is
literally pull the trigger.

378
00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:42,040
So that's at half cock,
go to full cock...

379
00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:43,800
I feel a bit like Dick Turpin.

380
00:24:45,120 --> 00:24:47,520
Ha! Take that, you blaggard.

381
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:51,520
So, why was it that that
led you to the match?

382
00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:55,000
I was working with a particular
compound, which was sulphur-based,

383
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:58,840
and I had coated the solution onto a
stick and then, purely by mischance,

384
00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:02,560
I struck it against the fireplace,
and it ignited.

385
00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:06,960
John Walker promptly
sold his matches,

386
00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:10,640
and their success
spread like wildfire.

387
00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:15,080
Scientist Dr Joe McGuinness and
artist Sarah Pickering

388
00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:17,760
are keeping
Walker's flame burning.

389
00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:19,760
Sarah, hello, I'm Michael.

390
00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:23,160
Hi, Michael. Now, you have done an
art piece,

391
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,120
an artwork around the
invention of the match.

392
00:25:26,120 --> 00:25:29,480
That's correct.
It's a 38-metre photograph,

393
00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:33,320
a massive enlargement
of a John Walker replica match.

394
00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:36,400
The commission that I had was to
celebrate something

395
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:40,560
about the Stockton area.
John Walker's invention in 1827

396
00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:43,040
seemed really perfect subject matter
for me.

397
00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:46,240
And how did you, as it were,
generate a Walker match?

398
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:49,480
Well, I came to the museum here
and did some research.

399
00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:52,480
They provided me with an original
recipe, and this is where

400
00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:54,960
Dr Joe McGuinness came in
and helped me out.

401
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:56,320
Joe.
Michael.

402
00:25:56,320 --> 00:25:57,520
Very good to see you.

403
00:25:57,520 --> 00:26:00,040
So, a difficult task to remake
a Walker match?

404
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:04,200
Not really. The compounds involved
are relatively common.

405
00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:07,920
You need an oxidising agent,
which is potassium chlorate.

406
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:11,440
You can think of that as a bit like
concentrated oxygen.

407
00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:16,480
OK. We need a fuel, which is
antimony sulphide,

408
00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:19,680
which is not the nicest compound,

409
00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:23,600
but, you know, don't drink it,
you'll be OK.

410
00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:27,680
And then we need some plant gum.

411
00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:31,960
That's just gum arabic and that is
required to get the match head

412
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:34,080
to stick together and adhere.

413
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:36,280
How do we do it, then? The first
thing to do is to put a pair

414
00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:38,160
of safety glasses and a lab coat on.

415
00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:40,520
I've got a face shield,
if you prefer,

416
00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:43,840
and a pair of gloves will be
advisable too.

417
00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:48,360
This is clearly going to be more
dangerous than I thought.

418
00:26:48,360 --> 00:26:52,720
The mixture obviously is shock
sensitive, so you can't do it in

419
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:55,120
a mortar and pestle and grind them
all up together,

420
00:26:55,120 --> 00:26:56,560
because it might go bang.

421
00:26:57,640 --> 00:27:00,760
Despite hiring people to
help him make matches,

422
00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:04,760
John Walker never allowed anyone to
do the last part of the process.

423
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:10,120
Some suspect that it had a special
ingredient that he kept secret.

424
00:27:10,120 --> 00:27:11,520
That's fine.

425
00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:15,880
One thing is certain -
its result was akin to a miracle.

426
00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:19,960
Let there be light.

427
00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:32,240
The steam engine is the icon
of the 19th century,

428
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:36,440
but other inventions of the period
also loom large in our history.

429
00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:40,480
Vulcanised rubber, and the striking
match, invented here on the banks of

430
00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:46,160
the Tees, bringing illumination to
our homes and fire to our hearts.

431
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:49,400
But humanity is not
just about technology.

432
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:53,640
Laurence Sterne's character,
Uncle Toby, suggested that a concern

433
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:58,760
for animal life was also a badge of
a civilised society.

434
00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:04,560
'Next time, I step through the
looking glass...'

435
00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:07,160
Michael, are you all right?

436
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:09,160
I've gone mad.

437
00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:11,520
'..prove there's no
smoke without fire

438
00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:14,280
'when it comes to
Northumbrian delicacies...'

439
00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:16,680
Right, quite enough of that,
I think.

440
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:19,200
Bye-bye, kippers.

441
00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:23,640
'..and rock the boat
on Scottish waters.'

442
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:25,080
My thoughts on the coracle -

443
00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:27,920
possibly the most impractical thing
I've ever set eyes on.

444
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:29,360
Whoa!